BEING THERE100 Sports Pros Talk About the Best Sporting Events They Ever Witnessed Firsthandby Eric Mirlis

What are the top sports moments you have seen in person?

That question was posed to some of the biggest names in sports broadcasting and journalism, and the results are all in the book, "Being There". 100 people, from Marv Albert to Pat Summerall, from Keith Jackson to Keith Olbermann, named the Top 5 moments they have had the chance to see live.

Now, you have the chance to compare your moments to theirs. Were you in Madison Square Garden the night the New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years? Or at Camden Yards when Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record? These are two of the hundreds of events discussed in "Being There", and the personal stories told by the subjects in the book put you there if you weren't. But if you were, how does your story compare to these?

Here is just a sample of the stories told in "Being There":

The night he received the George Halas Award for Courage and the New York Football Writers Dinner at the Americana Hotel, Gale Sayers gave the speech was re-created in the movie Brian’s Song. There was an added impact for me that night, because I went to college at Wake Forest with Brian Piccolo…Afterwards, I went to tell Sayers that I went to college with Brian, and Vince Lombardi was in front of me. Lombardi said, “Gale, you are a great American,” then choked up and started to cry. I couldn’t say anything after that and just turned and walked away.--Ernie Accorsi on Gale Sayers’ speech about Brian Piccolo

NBC was broadcasting the NBA at the time, and during the game, the O.J. Simpson White Ford Bronco chase was going on. On our TV monitor, NBC put up a split screen of the game and the O.J. chase; then, at some point, it just became O.J. I found it to be too distracting while broadcasting the game, so I asked our statistician to shut the monitor off. When he went to turn the TV off, all the fans sitting around the booth objected and asked if I would leave it on.--Mike Breen on Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals

After [Emmitt Smith] broke the record, there were so many people around him to celebrate that it seemed as though it would be impossible to get near him, and I knew he wanted to see his wife, Pat, and share the moment with his family. But all of a sudden, the mass of people standing between the two of us separated, and we had a direct line of sight to each other. That is when he came over and we embraced. This was a very special moment for me, on a historic day in NFL history.--Daryl Johnston on the day Emmitt Smith broke the NFL rushing record

This was a home run that couldn’t possibly have been hit. Dennis Eckersley was the most untouchable relief pitcher alive. Kirk Gibson could barely walk. And then there was that baseball, heading toward history, and everything about that World Series was about to change. Lives were changed by that swing of the bat, that baseball: that Oakland team’s place in history. Gibson’s place. Eckersley’s place. Tommy Lasorda’s place. Even Orel Hershiser’s place.--Jayson Stark on Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series

The pinpoint passing of the Colts’ Johnny Unitas stamped him as an all-time great, but there were also lineups of the game’s elite – legendary Colts like Ameche, Myhra, Donovan, Berry, Moore, Mutscheller, and Marchetti, just to name a few. The Giants had Conerly, Gifford, Huff, Robustelli, Summerall, and Webster. When the losers were quoted as saying it was the greatest game they had ever played in, everybody knew that pro football had now arrived as a major sports attraction. In those days, I worked the entire game…At halftime, for a brief respite, I put my teenage spotter on the air to give his opinion of the game. That was Maury Povich’s broadcast debut.--Bob Wolff on the Greatest Game Ever Played

Would you like to get in on the fun? Send your Top 5 list and stories to me atthemirl.com and check back on a regular basis. I will post the best lists so everyone can share in your experiences. I have posted my list to get everyone started.

Eric Mirlis is the owner and webmaster for TheMirl.com and has been a fixture on the New York sports scene for fifteen years. He is Senior Editor of CSTV.com, while occasionally freelancing as a statistician for NFL on FOX, New Jersey Nets on YES Network and New York Rangers radio broadcasts. Eric is also a frequent guest on "The Price Is Right" on Team 990, Montreal's English language all-sports radio station. He was Assistant Media Relations Director of the New York Islanders (1991-96) and Manager, Game Administration for the NBA (1996-2003). Among the events Eric has worked are six NBA All-Star Games, seven NBA Pre-Draft Camps, a Stanley Cup Finals and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. He can be reached at eric@themirl.com.